South African Charge of Israeli Apartheid Rings Hollow

A recent speaking tour about Israel brought me to South Africa, following a visit to Norway. Both countries are hostile environments when it comes to the Jewish state. In Norway, the three faculties of the Norwegian universities refused to host me, but student groups broke the boycott against pro-Israel speakers by inviting me to speak. In South Africa, the boycott held and I was precluded from speaking at any university.

The South African boycott against me, as an advocate for Israel, was spearheaded by a sitting judge named Dennis Davis, who aspires to serve on South Africa’s highest court and who authored an op ed in the Cape Times headlined “Dershowitz is not welcome here!” It was cosigned by a dozen other mainstream lawyers and academics strongly opposed to Israel.

I was originally invited to speak to the faculty and students at the University of Cape Town but Judge Davis pressured the school to make it impossible for me to appear. The University’s excuse was insufficient interest in my talk to warrant the heavy security my presence would have required. So instead I spoke off campus. More than 1,000 people including hundreds of students showed up for my talk. Another 1,000 people attended a second talk.

The justification offered by Davis for trying to censor me is that I have been critical of Bishop Desmond Tutu for calling Israel an Apartheid state and for accusing the Jewish people of being “arrogant,” “peculiar,” “claiming a monopoly” on God, and on the Holocaust. He also accused me of being opposed to peace and of supporting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, despite my long term support for the two-state solution and the end of the occupation. And he totally mischaracterized my views on torture, collective punishment and academic freedom. (For a full rebuttal to Davis’ pack of lies see my response in the Cape Times E-dition 3.28.11 and 3.31.11)

I am critical of Bishop Tutu’s call for boycotts against apartheid Israel, because it is a totally false charge. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that does not practice any form of apartheid: Jordan prohibits Jews from becoming citizens or owning land; Saudi Arabia practices gender apartheid; all Muslim countries engage in sexual orientation apartheid; Hamas is notorious for its anti-Christian apartheid; and the Palestinian Authority has said that “no Jew” will ever be allowed to live in a Palestinian state. Israel, on the other hand, is a racially diverse country in which Arabs serve in the Knesset, on the Supreme Court, on university faculties and even in the Cabinet. The court that recently convicted Israel’s former president of rape included an Arab judge. Nothing like this ever happened in apartheid South Africa.

Indeed, Tutu’s South Africa, remains a far more segregated country today than Israel. Poor blacks live in segregated temporary settlements, and de facto apartheid can be seen throughout South Africa.

Moreover, the South African government, the African National Congress and Bishop Tutu himself have far worse human rights records than does Israel. They have supported some of the most despotic regimes in the world, simply because the despots who head these regimes in Libya, Iran, Cuba, China, Zimbabwe, and the Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza–sided with their legitimate struggle against apartheid in years past.

Yet in a hypercritical display of double-standard immorality, they will never forgive Israel for its support of Dr. Klerk’s South Africa, despite the reality that most Arab and Muslim nations traded extensively with the apartheid regime. They demand a moral pass for serving as enablers of repression on the ground that these tyrants supported them, but they refuse to give Israel a pass for having supported a tyrannical regime that helped them during trying times.

Bishop Tutu’s call for a boycott against the Jewish state is hypocrisy at its worst. First, a boycott is the personification of collective punishment directed against all Israelis, regardless of their individual views or actions. Second, it singles out only Israel for a boycott, while encouraging “reconciliation” (and trade) with some of the world’s worst human rights offenders. Third, it hurts the poorest people mostly blacks in South Africa. Consider the recent boycott of Ben Gurion University by the University of Johannesburg, a boycott encouraged by Tutu. Ben Gurion has helped Johannesburg with research on water purification, which affects many poor South Africans. This joint research project which helps South Africa far more than Israel has now been ended because of the Tutu-inspired boycott.

Now Tutu has called for a worldwide cultural, academic and economic boycott against the Jewish state, a boycott reminiscent of the Nazi boycott of Jewish goods in the 1930s. The difference, of course, is that today a total boycott of Israeli products would include cell phones, Intel processors, numerous medical technologies and pharmaceuticals, and important environmental and agricultural innovations.

I’m proud of standing up against Bishop Tutu’s singular bigotry against the Jewish nations and the Jewish people. I will continue to do so until and unless he stop applying a double-standard to all things Jewish.

Yet I defend Tutu’s right and those of his sycophants such as Judge Davis to express their anti-Israel views. I would never try to censor them, as they have tried to censor me and others who express views supportive of Israel. The difference is I am not afraid of the truth, of debate or of the marketplace of ideas. Those, like Judge Davis, who tried to ban me from speaking on university campuses are clearly afraid to have all sides of the Arab-Israeli dispute aired. They have resorted to the age-old tactic employed by those who do not trust the public to make up their own minds: censorship of opposing views. That seems to be the approach taken by South African universities when it comes to Israel.

South Africa thus joins Norway as among the nations of the world most intolerant of pro Israel–even moderately pro Israel–views. In at least one respect, South Africa is even worse: one major university has imposed a formal academic boycott against an Israeli university, thanks to Bishop Tutu; and another university has succeeded in preventing its students from hearing a pro-Israel speaker on their campus, thanks to Judge Davis. But in another respect, South Africa is far better: its vibrant Jewish community is willing to fight back against those who would censor pro-Israel views.

It is time to stop the bigotry against the Jewish people…..AND AGAINST THE WHITES.
Reverse racism is lifting its ugly head and assuming white/Jewish guilt will prevail.
Let me say that they have got it 100% wrong. That tired dead horse will not work anymore.
What will work is a lot more clear vision from the imposers of guilt. Look at yourselves first.

Harold

It is amazing the hatred Israel gets in the world. A tolerant democratic nation is hated the world over. Sure they have made mistakes, and could make changes, but the treatment of Israel is far beyond a mistake here or there. Israel is treated worse than the most totalitarian and brutal nations on Earth by Desmond Tutu and others.

I'm sorry, but Desmond Tutu is not a man of peace. He has done some very positive things in his life, but as Dershowitz stated he has supported some oppressive states, and continues to do so.

We must always be civil, but those that believe in what Israel is, and not what it is portrayed as by its enemies must never give up the debate. We must stand up for Israel at every opportunity.

ziontruth

"It is amazing the hatred Israel gets in the world. A tolerant democratic nation is hated the world over."

I used to be very frustrated over this. On some level I still am. But then I learned of the highly practical adage, "When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade," and I realized that in this injustice lies great opportunity.

When Israel turns its back on the misguided Progressive (Marxist really) values for which she should be praised but isn't, what are the demonizers going to do? Like the Race Card, the vile abuse they have heaped on Israel and Zionism can only shock the first, second, at most dozen times. But now what new thing do they have left to say they haven't said before? We've been inoculated.

Soon, HaShem willing, the detractors of Israel will look fondly at today's Israel. They'll realize how good, how patient, how long-suffering they had it from us then. But we won't be listening to their screams. We'll have gotten deaf to them, because of their moral vacuity.

Jacques

I agree, I am fed up with our Government and their unholy alliances, and worst of all they think they are right. The same Government that fought against racial, gender, religious discrimination is now supporting countries like Palestine where the same atrocities takes place.

I do not understand it, can someone explain it to me. But in these days it seems that that which is wrong is right and vica versa. What they do not understand is that the nation of Israel in not just any nation, it is a nation chosen by YHVH and they are His people. If a nation is against them so will YHVH be against that nation.

So, Desmond, Dershowitz and other unholy alliances please wake up and realise that you are not fighting a people but you are fighting the God of Abraham and Isaac, and I can tell you now who the victor will be, definitely not Desmond and his horde of uninformed heathen friends.

Lightning Jack

Desmond Tutu condemns Israel for unproven claims of apartheid against the Palestinians but has nothing to say about Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe's murderous, dictatorial regime which has driven a once prosperous nation and its people to the brink of starvation and chaos?

Bishop Tutu and judge Davis would function quite well in Mugabe's tyrannical regime as sanctimonious hypocrites of social justice, who falsely condemn the most democratic state in the Middle East for unfounded humanitarian atrocities, while their own government supports and sanctions trade with the most diabolical human rights offenders on the planet.

Jeff A.

There is apartheid in Israel but it is not enforced by the Jews on the Muslims, it's reversed! Unbelievably, the Israelis still have given the Muslims authority over the Temple Mount, the Islamic Waqf have their own religious police watching Jews. The Waqf police will not allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount–they even have the right to eject any Jew from the Temple Mount if he/she is moving his/her lips in silent prayer!

Just think, if this situation was reversed, the Muslims would be crying into BBC cameras saying that the Jewish religious police wouldn't let them pray. Yet why is this fact of the fascist Waqf not known or spoken of by the leftists and anti-Semites of the world? I guess it's OK to tell lies about the Jews but when it comes to telling the facts regarding Muslims, the world becomes blind–deaf and dumb!!

jacob

But what goes at the Temple Mount is nobody's fault but Israel's…! ! !

It was ideed DAYAN's euforia at the 1967 success what foolishly prevented him
from taking the Temple Mount keys the fearful WAQF was handing him over,
which is why they felt entitled to do everything they did and do since and no
Israeli govmt. has had the "cojones" to set them straight….

How true is that those who are made out of sugar, end up eaten by the ants ! ! !

jaythehistorian

Who care what this ugly dwarf thinks? How will Israel survive if Johannesburg University boycotts Israel? LOL South Africa has become incredibly backwards since whites lost all rights there. Israel will be denied the academic brilliance of a nation whose President was accused of rape and who admitted to raping the woman in question explaining " it was my duty to rape that woman" . That same President , Jacob Zuma, doesn't believe AIDS is spread by sexual contact and his theme song is "Bring me my machine gun". I wish Frontpgage Mag wouldn't show pictures of Tutu because it could cause pregnant woman to miscarry and cause severe nightmares in young children.

Anthony

Of course I am happy that Mr. Tutu is not Catholic. That the heirachy of the Anglican church fails to censure him specks to their moral decay.

I find it however ironic that Mr. Dershowitz appears astounded that such mischaracterizations of Isreal defy the facts he presented to demolish the “apartheid” lie.

Mr. Dershowitz after all was a legal advisor to OJ Simpson who murdered two innocent people. In that instance, he used every fact defying, and logic bending trick possible to protect a big lie.

My question to Mr. Dershowitz is the following:

How does it feel to be on the other side of the bog lie?

My question to Mr. Dershowitz is this: how does it feel to be on the other side of the big lie?

Larry

Tutu is nothing more then the usual old-fashioned anti-semite. there is no way to reason with him as long as he is financially supported by Arab Nations. With his help South Africa is once again an Apartheid Country.

John W Bauer

Prof. Dershowitz must now know how it feels for David Horowitz, Ann Coulter and some of our other wonderful Conservative thinkers when they dare to enter the hostile atmosphere that is academia. I can only pray that he will take this experience back to the "swells" at Harvard as an example of how hurtful and hateful is the intolerance of the Left, and in this case, to one of their own. I am also praying that this experience might just make him rethink his continuing allegiance to the Left. JBauer

Neils60

Mr. Dershowitz made a lot of fine points in this article, but he left out one important fact. He made a good point that, "Most Arab and Moslem nations traded extensively with the apartheid (South African) regime" during de Klerk's adminstration. What he neglected to mention is an important, but always ignored fact, that every single so-called "black" African nation did business/trade with de Klerk's administration, too.

zebrotha

Like all modern politically correct civil rights leaders, Tutu has a problem with racial favoritism only when it isn’t personally profitable. Real civil rights leaders look to history as evidence that racial favoritism inevitably results in hate and violence, not as "proof" that the same stereotype driven agenda in reversed colors will have different consequences.

The real political minority is never any one color, but those who insist color differences are irrelevant, past, present and probably the future too, given the ease with which racists continue to dominate world politics.

Lillith66

I am an ex pat South African Jew and the worst part of this is how hard the Jews in SA fought to end apartheid….ahh well, whatever….!

muchiboy

"I am an ex pat South African Jew and the worst part of this is how hard the Jews in SA fought to end apartheid….ahh well, whatever….!"

To your peoples credit.It is no coincidence that some of the most effective critics of Zionism are Jewish.Critical thinking is the hall mark of your people throughout history.The Palestinians would be fools to not do everything in their power to make Jews feel safe,secure and welcomed in Palestine/Israel and the region.Likewise,the Israeli's need to be magnanimous in their actions and behaviors towards the Palestinian people.They are not.Unfortunately and tragically,the ruling class in Zimbabwe failed to realize this about the Europeans in their country.

Syd Chaden

A map of the Middle East shows a very tiny Israel, surrounded by vast Muslim countries. The Israeli population, comprised mainly of Sabras, survivors of the Holocaust, Jews who fled the Muslim countries and anti-Semitism in Europe, and Arabs, is dwarfed by the Muslim country populations. But, the media is filled with articles which term the existence of Israel to be "apartheid", and equate its response to attacks as genocide. The Goldstone Report matter is simply one episode in the ongoing saga. The most amazing aspect of it all is that so many American Jews, in their eagerness to be accepted in the "New World Order", either remain silent or condemn Israel. It is a much simpler matter to anguish over a holocaust that has already occurred, than it is to act to prevent one that has not yet happened.

muchiboy

"boycotts against apartheid Israel, because it is a totally false charge. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that does not…"
I have tried to address this argument in previous posts to a greater or lesser degree and with limited success as this is a contentious and complex issue.In some very interesting and subtle (and not so subtle) ways Zionist Israel was far more successful in ridding her nation-state of non-Jews then was Apartheid South Africa able to rid her state of non-whites,thus somewhat escaping or minimizing the ugly reality or necessity or appearance of blatant Apartheid.South Africa used Apartheid as a legal and moral wall to separate her minority European population from her majority African population,thus and to avoid a truly united or merged South African population where one man,one vote would over whelm the white minority.By using a flawed and morally unconscionable series of petty laws that legitimized and validated racial and ethnic discrimination and segregation whites ,late settlers to Africa,retained privilege over the more indigenous,earlier black settlers.This contrasted to the de facto,facts on the ground,by hook or by crook,or Highland Clearance style policy of ethnic cleansing as practiced by Zionists against Palestinian Arabs who had settled and occupied Palestine for hundreds if not thousands of years,almost as long as Palestinian Jews,who,being descendants of the original Israelis,had a continuous presence in Palestine since the walls of Jerico came tumbling down.So,while none can nor should deny the place or presence of Jews in Palestine,who for all intents and purposes have been settlers both before and since their people were victims of ethnic cleansing by the Romans,one can argue the occupation of Palestine by the European Diaspora after hundreds and thousands of years and the resultant dispossession of the earlier and legitimate Palestinian Arab settlers.It is my argument that by this very act of ethnic cleansing Jews have merely but effectively replaced the South African legal and (im)moral walls that served to separate black and white by the more physical walls and boundaries to likewise separate Jew and Arab.In a sense,denying Palestinians the right of return to their homeland ,thereby denying homeland and birth right to the Palestinian war refugees and their descendants,is even more reprehensible and unconscionable then the South African form of Apartheid. With the former,the possibility of resolution was retained,while with the latter that possibility is remote at best.

"far worse human rights records than does Israel."
Only if you discount the hundreds of thousands and millions of Palestinians denied their birth right and homeland.This at best is morally and intellectually dishonest,at worse an unconscionable crime against humanity and the Palestinian people.

"Bishop Tutu’s call for a boycott against the Jewish state is hypocrisy at its worst."
It may well represent the only effective and humane way to reach out to the Israeli's and Jews every where so they understand how their friends abhor their treatment of the Palestinian people.

BS77

you want to see apartheid? go visit Saudi Arabia or Pakistan…be sure to carry a large Christian Bible and wear a crucifix…….you will see apartheid in about one second. Tutu is delusional and bombastic…..a hot air system in fancy robes.

ziontruth

Exactly. And not only the official theocracies of the Islamic world. In practice, every Muslim-majority country is a de-facto apartheid state; if Islam is not enshrined in law then the Muslim majority enforces it nonetheless.

Fred Dawes

CAN I PAY FOR TUTU TO GO AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS?

muchiboy

"Actually it'll only drive more and more Jews toward the Right, so by all means, go ahead."
Unfortunately you're right,maybe the way to go is with non economic boycotts first,like serious and official culture boycotts,e.g.sports,performers,etc.as America imposes on Cuba.If no serious changes,then consider withdrawing diplomatic recognition or downgrading their representation.Economic sanctions can follow.Now,sanctions and boycotts have had some success,e.g.Rhodesia,South Africa.If the Israeli's truly value the Western mindset and democratic traditions,then there is a good chance they will meet the West half way.I would agree that threats would be counter productive.And likely without American participation,Israel could survive unchanged for decades and perhaps indefinitely. muchiboy

muchiboy

"The worst crime is the disguising of this Islamic imperialist project of robbing the Jews of their one and only state (God forbid) as a "national struggle," complete with a fabricated history of a nation cooked up from scratch."

A state that hasn't existed for some thousand or so years,ziontruth.During that time Jews have been citizens of many or most European and world city states and have done very well indeed.Jews more then any other people have been world and world class citizens.I would not go so far to say that Jews are deserving of their own nation state homeland at the expense of the Palestinian people,even given the horrendous history of Antisemitism culminating in the Holocaust.If that case is indeed made,then the situation of the Palestinian people would have to undergo a transformation,at the expense of Israel,but in the long run to the benefit of both peoples.muchiboy

ziontruth

"A state that hasn't existed for some thousand or so years"

Weighed against a nation that has never existed at all (the faux-Palestinian Arab nation) and a nation that already has lands far beyond its indigenous mandate (the Arab nation, whose mandate is the Arabian Peninsula), the Jews' claim is ironclad.

"During that time Jews have been citizens of many or most European and world city states and have done very well indeed."

If they were lucky. But even the lucky ones never considered anywhere but Palestine to be their one true home. Yehudah HaLevi held high office in Islamic Spain, yet he still longed for the Holy Land.

".I would not go so far to say that Jews are deserving…"

You are not the judge of this. Not you, nor any other of the busybodies telling us where, if at all, we're allowed to build on our own lands. You all are insolent hyenas, all anti-Zionists are.

"…of their own nation state homeland at the expense of the Palestinian people…"

The Jews are the one and only true Palestinian people.

"…even given the horrendous history of Antisemitism culminating in the Holocaust."

Zionism is not about redressing past wrongs done unto the Jews; it's about the Jews returning to their one and only true homeland, the land that belongs to them and no one else.

http://vnnforum.com DeShawn

Bishop Tutu says that Isreal is an apartheid state, and he should know. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. But no, one standard for the damn jews, another standard for everyone else. You people promote diversity and multi-culturalism in American, but in Isreal, no that's for jews only. Hypocrites.

ziontruth

"Bishop Tutu says that Isreal is an apartheid state, and he should know."

A black supremacist like you praising Tutu tells one all he needs to know about Tutu.

"But no, one standard for the damn jews, another standard for everyone else."

True dat: No other nation in the world get told their country needs to be reduced in size, or done away with altogether, for the sake of world peace.

"You people promote diversity and multi-culturalism in American, but in Isreal, no that's for jews only."

The too many Jews who have bought into the false cult of Marxism do wrong, but in this they are no different from all the non-Jewish Marxists. I'm a staunch opponent of Marxism and would like to see it end up in the dustbin of history (along with your own anti-white racism). And I hold that it is every nation's right to have a nation-exclusive state. But this is not about me; you, like a medieval villager during the Black Death, put false blame on the Jews for something that is not their fault.

Go to hell.

ziontruth

(for readers of this thread standalone) I call DeShawn a black supremacist because he outed himself as such on a previous thread.

I'm both pro-black and pro-white, but it would be more accurate to say I'm pro-nationalism and anti-Marxist. I hate Obama and Samantha Power just the same, and I love Allen West and Sarah Palin just the same. On the basis of their political platforms and nothing else, just as MLK said it should be.

MixMChess

DeShawn is probably a white supremacist posing as a black supremacist hating Jews. Its a win-win for the neo-nazi because he essentially gets to kill two birds with one stone. Hopefully he crawls back under the rock (or trailer park) from which he came).

SpiritOf1683

And De Shawn is a typical uneducated sub-70-IQ Jew-hating Uncle Tom who beliongs in Saudi Arabia and not the US.

muchiboy

"They do, but they value Jewish sovereignty and security even more,"
Of course ,that is a choice for the Israeli's to make.There is a price to be made either way.Just as the Jews weighted on the minds and conscience of the West then,so the condition of the Palestinians will continue to weight on the conscience of the west.Hopefully,the end will see both peoples benefit from a solution,likely imposed.Likely too, Israel will lose a limb,as the Palestinians will gain one.Together,both Jew and Palestinian could have it all,but both will end up with less.muchiboy

ziontruth

"…so the condition of the Palestinians will continue to weight on the conscience of the west."

You deluded fool. The only thing weighting on the "consciences" of the interventionists in the EU(SSR) is their steady flow of oil. What do you think the current kerfuffle in Libya is all about?

".Hopefully,the end will see both peoples benefit from a solution,likely imposed."

Imposed. No respect whatsoever to the sovereignty of nations. Interventionist scum!

"Likely too, Israel will lose a limb,…"

We do not have many limbs to spare. Would you agree to cut off one of your legs or arms for any kind of cause?

"…as the Palestinians will gain one."

The Arab settlers don't want just one limb out of the Jewish State, they want the entire body for themselves (God forbid).

"Together,both Jew and Palestinian could have it all,but both will end up with less."

Unicorns and fairies and all that stuff. Keep your dreams to yourself, you stupid utopianist fantasist.

SpiritOf1683

Paleonazis are responsible for their lot, not us. And if they bordered China and lobbed one hand grenade into a Chinese city, they'd be extinct.

MixMChess

"Likewise,the Israeli's need to be magnanimous in their actions and behaviors towards the Palestinian people."

Israel already gives the Palestinians plenty, you give them and an inch and they want a mile. When will the Palestinians stop murdering (and beheading) Israeli children?

muchiboy

"you give them and an inch and they want a mile. "
Doesn't that fit the Israeli/Zionist model more accurately then the Palestinian model/reality?

"When will the Palestinians stop murdering (and beheading) Israeli children? "
I won't defend the indefensible behaviors of the Palestinians any more then I will those of your people,ziontruth.Whatever the reasons,and they may be simply evilly practical (pure ,practical terrorism) or they maybe tit for tat (e.g.I'll behead your children because your pilots or tankers behead Palestinian children.) muchiboy

ziontruth

"Doesn't that fit the Israeli/Zionist model more accurately…"

No. There have been no calls among Zionists to appropriate anything outside the Land of Israel. Even the most expansionist Zionist leader will tell you Iraq, for example, doesn't belong to the Jews.

In contrasts, the Arabs want everything we have, and every concession of land we make is only followed by further demands.

SpiritOf1683

Of course, you want another 15 million dead Jews. Nothing less would satisfy a genocidal antisemitic lunatic like yourself more.

MixMChess

"I won't defend the indefensible behaviors of the Palestinians any more then I will those of your people,ziontruth."

Israel has never done anything indefensible. It doesn't actively seek the murder of sleeping children like the Palestinians. You have absolutely no moral compass – pretty sad really.

"Whatever the reasons,and they may be simply evilly practical (pure ,practical terrorism) or they maybe tit for tat (e.g.I'll behead your children because your pilots or tankers behead Palestinian children.)"

Israel doesn't target children so now you are lying to justify your already unsound logic.

steven l

AD could have added that Muslims still practice slavery of black people. How do SA and Tutu explain this? Probably they get so much petro$ to turn a blind EYE. Shame on them.

Fred Dawes

IT Maybe TUTU owns some? slavery was outlawed in SA About 160 years ago but muslims today still have slaves.

MixMChess

Slavery is still common practice in Sudan and Mauritania which are both (ding! ding! ding!) Islamic/Arab countries.

Fred Dawes

Only fools harte jews, this butt TUTU Is a ugly little raicts who will never understand what God will do to the evil ones, I feel for this ass TUTU Hell will have fun with this reek monkey.

SpiritOf1683

Tutu is just another hate-filled antisemitic raisinhead whose like we have seen all too often for our liking.

BS77

muchiboy…you post too much ….take a long walk on a short pier

Carol Romine

Just remember this..In the BIBLE it says..God will bless those who love the Jews. Be not deceived God is not mocked..Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap! God is still in control! As for me and my house we will serve The Lord God. Please pray for the Peace of Jerusalem!